As a season ticket holder, I have just received from
GWR▸ a letter and pamphlet entitled 'Travelling this Christmas' and showing all of the closures between Slough and Paddington and the replacement services for Sunday 27th and Monday 28th December.
There is a whole new set of diversionary routes for the long distance services both into Marylebone and via Basingstoke into Waterloo; routes I have never undertaken in an
HST▸ and I will - with the purchase of a day-return Oxford to my local Thames Valley station - be on my travel menu for the occasion.
However, the
piece de resistance is the diversionary map for the Reading-Paddington section on those same days when Slough-London is closed. The diagram reminds me of the 1900's map of the Underground that showed the Inner, Middle and Outer Circles plus all of the routes in between.
As well as the Basingstoke diversions there is the usual
SWT▸ route via Feltham, but now with rail-replacement buses and
TfL» bus service opportunities to travel to London via Maidenhead-High Wycombe, Slough-Hillingdon, Hayes and Harlington-Hatton Cross-Feltham, Southall-Hounslow West, Ealing Broadway/Greenford-Oxford Circus-Piccadilly Circus-Embankment and the Bakerloo line between Waterloo and Paddington. This includes travel on the Metropolitan, Piccadilly, Central and District Lines. What is unclear, is whether it also includes the Reading-Heathrow Rail-Air bus and Heathrow Airport - also shown on the diagram. It also looks like the route through Windsor is explicitly allowed - even mentioning a 15 minute walk between the two stations.
I have in mind a GWR challenge - who can within the day cover the entire legitimate possible diversionary routes (both bus and train) between Reading and Paddington covering all of the possible stops in between. A Reading-London season seems to cover most, but a Thames Rover would also cover the Marlow-High Wycombe bus ^ not included above. There are only two days.
Very sad, I know but Merry Christmas (in anticipation) to all!
